How Market Needs and ERP Trends Push a Major Food Company to Select Microsoft Dynamics NAV

In the food industry, where the unique pressures of government regulation, mega-retailers, perishable stock, and the threat of recalls haunt producers at every step, ERP capabilities seem both daunting and absolutely critical for operations.

An increasing number of companies in the food industry are moving to adopt the latest ERP systems to keep up with the demands of the market. TW Garner Food Company, the privately held producer of Texas Pete Hot Sauce, is one of those companies that is moving to an ERP platform from JustFoodERP powered by Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Ann Garner Riddle, vice president of the Winston Salem, North Carolina-based TW Garner, agreed that her company, like others in the food industry, face some unique challenges—challenges that a decades-old legacy system just can’t handle.

“You have to ship on time, you have to ship on quality,” said Marc DiGiorgio, vice president of Allentown, Penn.-based JustFoodERP, a company that specializes in delivering a Microsoft Dynamics-based software and service package for the food industry. “If you don’t, you’ll get a lot of penalties. And if you work with them you also have to do a lot of co-marketing. There are a lot of complexities working with a large retailer as opposed to a mom-and-pop retailer.”

As a result of compliance and food safety requirements, food manufacturers have to have real-time visibility into their inventory as well as information regarding profitability and real-time customer information, DiGiorgio said.

Garner Riddle said her company had all the pertinent information, it just couldn’t get at it. So the company decided to replace its legacy system because, even though it ...